Wellington, Aug 13 (IANS): The number of arrivals and departures across the New Zealand border in June 2021 dipped slightly from the month before, due to interruptions to the quarantine-free travel with Australia, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.

There were 175,500 total movements across the New Zealand border in June 2021, made up of 85,400 arrivals and 90,200 departures, Stats NZ said.

This is down from May 2021, when there were 189,500 total movements across the border, made up of 91,300 arrivals and 98,200 departures.

Provisional data for July 2021 shows a further fall in the number of border crossings, reflecting the ongoing pauses in travel from some Australian states and territories in July, and the suspension of quarantine-free travel from Australia to New Zealand in late July, population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said in a statement.

There were 51,600 overseas visitor arrivals in June 2021, down 6,000 from May 2021 and making roughly a quarter of the number in June 2019, Islam said.

Of the overseas visitor arrivals who specified their country of residence, 92 per cent were from Australia and of these, 40 per cent were New Zealand citizens, he said.

There were 29,600 New Zealand-resident arrivals in June 2021, a few hundred higher than May 2021, but well down from June 2019, which was 257,300, statistics show.

Almost 80 per cent of them were returning from a trip to Australia and 15 per cent from the Cook Islands, Stats NZ said.